Justify Your Attendance

Gaining the knowledge and experience equivalent to the one-day super event that is the Marketing&Tech Partnership Summit is nearly impossible. The information you will acquire and expert advice this year's speakers are prepared to arm you with could take months to compile on your own. See the below speaker agenda:

Interactivity and interaction are the keywords. We want you to make the most of the conference and own the experience. Our program is crowdsourced and community-built. If at any point you're not interested in the session, it's OK to leave the room and go to another session or another part of the event. Our conference room has been designated the networking room, and there are two networking breaks and a networking lunch.

Compare and evaluate competitors, share concepts and ideas with marketers and their technology counterparts, and explore opportunities for your company or agency. Contacts are there to be built, made, and sustained.

Make sure your boss knows you are going to spend time at the summit learning, networking and meeting people.

3. TIME WELL SPENT

Take time to plan your day. Look through the agenda and show your boss the sessions you are going to attend and what you will learn.

Build an agenda that will incorporate attending sessions and networking. Be sure to write out which sponsor sessions you're planning on visiting and how attending them will positively affect not only yourself, but also your company. Bosses will appreciate that you present them with a specific plan rather than a vague idea, as it will save them time.

Make sure you know the location, date, and cost (including travel and hotel, if needed), and summarize what you'll learn. Better yet, bring your boss a printout with all the relevant details. This also shows you've thought your plan through, and that you care enough about attending to put time into it.

4. THE VALUE

Not only does your boss want to know that you've fully thought out and researched the conference, but he or she will also want to know how much it will cost.

Try to attach a dollar amount to the value of what you will learn—this helps your boss see that they may actually be saving money in the long run.

We hope these ideas will be effective for you in getting your boss to say "yes" to the 2014 Marketing&Tech Partnership Summit. See you in New York on January 28!